Matteo Renzi could become Italy's youngest prime minister ever - CSMonitor.com Matteo Renzi could become Italy's youngest prime minister ever Latest News The mayor of Florence, Matteo Ranzi, 39, could be named Italy's prime minister this weekend. Prime Minister Enrico Letta was forced out Friday by his party, the center-left Democratic Party. By Paolo Biondi, Reuters Premier Enrico Letta drove himself to the Italian president's palace and resigned Friday after he was sacked by his own party in a back-room mutiny designed to catapult Florence's young mayor into the helm of Italy's government. View Caption View Caption of Rome — Italy 's president may ask young centre-left leader Matteo Renzi to become its youngest ever prime minister this weekend after a party coup that forced Enrico Letta to resign as premier of the euro zone state struggling to pull out of recession. Letta bowed out on Friday after the leadership of his Democratic Party (PD) forced him to step aside and make way for Renzi, 39, who is promising bold economic reforms and a government than can survive until 2018.

President Giorgio Napolitano expects to complete a round of consultations with parties in the evening and could summon Renzi, the PD secretary and current mayor of Florence, soon afterwards to form a government, sources in the party said. Photos of the Day Photos of the day 01/13 The party, which split from scandal-plagued tycoon and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi last year, has ruled out liberal social policies that Renzi has advocated, including gay civil unions, and wants a clear centre-right stamp on the government. Renzi, whose PD is the largest party in parliament, would become the youngest leader in Italy 's 163-year history as a united country, younger even - by two months - than Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was when he took over in 1922. But before Renzi can stake his claim on history and attempt to install Italy 's 65th government since World War Two, he must overcome institutional rituals and much wheeling-and-dealing, a process likely to take several days.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the pro-devolution Northern League , both opposition groups, have abandoned the talks, saying they are an empty ritual whose outcome is already written. But Berlusconi, the centre-right leader who was booted out of parliament last year after a conviction for tax fraud, was to accompany leaders of his Forza Italia party to meet the head of state in the afternoon. After striking a deal with parliamentary allies, Renzi must name the members of his cabinet, swear them in, and then seek confidence votes in both houses of parliament. He would become the third prime minister in a row nominated by Napolitano without having won an election. Letta was chosen to helm a right-left government after last year's deadlocked election, and Mario Monti took over for Berlusconi during a burgeoning euro zone debt crisis in 2011. "If they think that this is democracy, we don't agree," said Vito Crimi , a leading member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in the Senate .

MARKETS SEEM UNCONCERNED Financial markets have seemed indifferent to Italy 's latest political ruction and investor confidence in the country's ability pay off its debt is much improved from 2011. On Friday, Moody's Investors Service lifted the country's sovereign rating outlook to stable from negative, after having slashed it by six notches to Baa2 from Aa2 during the debt crisis. But that will not make the challenges facing Italy 's next government any less significant. Gross domestic product has shrivelled by about 7 percent in the last five years and industrial output has fallen by 25 percent. Italy 's economy grew by a measly 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, data showed on Friday. It entered its worst post-war recession in mid-2011. Hundreds of thousands of companies have gone out of business and joblessness has not reached such a high level since the 1970s. Italy 's 2 trillion euros of public debt are equivalent to more than 130 percent of total economic output.

Until two weeks ago, Renzi repeatedly said that he had no ambition to snatch power without first winning an election, a move most Italians do not agree with, opinion polls have said. Mounting pressure from unions and Italy 's business lobby, which criticized the Letta government for not doing enough to help the country's struggling corporate landscape, prompted Renzi to change his mind, sources close to him have said. A similar centre-left putsch in 1998 paved the way for a landslide centre-right election victory by Berlusconi less than three years later. "If the new prime minister wants to govern and change the country, he'll have to do it without fear of losing the next elections," former premier Monti said in an interview with Il Foglio newspaper on Saturday. Italian prime ministers are appointed by the president and do not have to win a direct election as premiers do in many other countries. But the succession of Italian prime ministers who have taken office without a mandate from voters has drawn criticism from opposition parties. Next up Get the Monitor stories you care about delivered to your inbox.

Daily Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi Looks to Reboot Italy - Bloomberg Bloomberg the Company & Its Products Bloomberg Anywhere Remote LoginBloomberg Anywhere Login Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Advertising Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Sign In Subscribe An Audacious Plan to Reboot Italy's Economy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has big plans for the euro zone’s third-largest economy. Can he succeed where so many have failed? April 12, 2016 Share on LinkedIn Share on Reddit Share on Google+ E-mail Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Matteo Renzi picks up a saber propped against a gilded armchair in a salon at Palazzo Chigi, his official residence in Rome. A fencing champion gave him the weapon as a present, the boyish-looking 41-year-old prime minister says. So who’s he going to use it against? Renzi brandishes the blade for a moment, then slices it down through the air.

He grins. “Italian banks!” He’s joking, but you can’t blame Italy’s youngest-ever PM for having money matters on his mind as he begins his third year in office. Renzi’s legacy will be judged on whether he can pull the country out of a three-year recession—its longest on record and one for which banks and their bad loans get a lot of the blame. It’s not just Renzi’s political future that’s at stake. This is the euro zone’s third-biggest economy. The country’s public debt fell to €2.17 trillion ($2.47 trillion) in December, but measured against gross domestic product, it’s still the single currency club’s second-biggest after that of Greece, at more than 130 percent. Illustrator: Jamie Cullen An ambitious outsider who first conquered Italy’s biggest political party, then the premiership, Renzi is seeking to transform a nation paralyzed by economic stagnation, political corruption, and weak, short-lived governments—63 of them since World War II. As it is, Italy is barely crawling out of recession.

GDP rose 0.8 percent last year, according to the European Commission (EC), and will expand 1.4 percent this year, lagging behind all euro zone nations except Greece and Finland. The latest numbers suggest even more pain. In the fourth quarter of 2015, GDP rose only 0.1 percent—the slowest pace in a year, according to Istat, the government statistics bureau. For Renzi, heading what is arguably the most reformist postwar Italian government and confronted with a seismic immigration problem, the challenges are daunting. When he took office he promised “a reform a month.” Can he deliver on his ambitious agenda? How soon can he achieve stronger growth? And can he cajole the European Union to give him the budget flexibility he needs to make headway? Renzi crackles with energy. At the start of our interview, he stashes the sword in his office next door, returns to ask who wants coffee, and then phones in the order himself. Nicknamed il Rottamatore—the Demolition Man—because of his calls to destroy Italy’s political establishment, he sees the woes of the past as an opportunity.

“I weep when I think of the incredible mistakes that were made in Italy over the last 20 years,” he says in heavily accented English. “But that also means we can do much.” In the next 10 years, he says, Italy could become the leading player in the European Union—ahead of even Germany and France. “That’s the Italian role I would like to see,” he adds. That’s obviously quite a claim, and one rooted in Renzi’s outsized confidence. Tall and often sporting a trendy narrow black tie (he’s rarely seen in the leather jackets he used to wear before becoming PM), Renzi smiles easily and likes to crack jokes, mocking his audience or himself. In a serious vein, he compares his government’s reform push and Italy’s relative political stability to what’s going on in other big European states. “One country is particularly affected by the migration crisis,” he says, clearly meaning Germany. “Another one has elections next year”—France, surely—and “another is focused on the referendum”—the U.K., with its June vote on staying in or leaving the EU—while “another country is without a government”—Spain.

Matteo Renzi speaks during an interview at Chigi palace in Rome, Italy, on Feb. 8, 2016. Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg “The real credibility of a leader is in what he delivers,” he says. “In the first two years we have achieved important results. No one believed that in this time we could change the electoral law, cut taxes for the first time. But I will continue.” He’s not one for looking back much. “I don’t have the time,” he says. Shifting restlessly in an antique armchair, Renzi talks fast as he looks ahead to the time between now and the next Italian general election, which must be held before May 23, 2018. “When I ran my first marathon,” he says, “a wise man told me, ‘Don’t think about the 42 kilometers; run, run, run.’ ” He ticks off items on his to-do list: attracting foreign investment, making public administration more efficient, expanding broadband. “So until 2018 I’ll go on running. If I stop to think … I’m finished.” Banks are high on Renzi’s list.

The day we meet in February, his government is crafting new measures to speed up the bad-loan market and encourage mergers and acquisitions. Total lending to borrowers considered insolvent reached €200.9 billion in December, and a senior government official privately says bad loans plaguing Italian banks are the single biggest factor weighing down the economy. “The markets are worried,” Renzi says. “We must come back with transparency, transparency, transparency. The banks of the future will have less retail and be more innovative. I am confident that government measures on banks will be a signal to the markets.” In late March, Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano agreed to merge in a deal that will create the country’s third-largest lender. Such mergers, along with new laws, are “far from being big-bang solutions,” but they at least show that “something is finally moving,” Oxford Economics wrote in a report on March 30. At a meeting at the Treasury in Rome on Monday evening, officials and bank executives agreed to create a multibillion-euro fund to help troubled smaller lenders raise capital and offload bad loans.

The new fund, named Atlante and the result of more than a week of talks among banks, insurers and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, may be worth about 5 billion euros, said Alessandro Vandelli, chief executive officer of Banca Popolare dell'Emiglia Romagna Scarl. Many Italian business and bank executives are backing Renzi, but they want more from him. It didn’t help his reform push that his industry minister, Federica Guidi, resigned over an alleged conflict of interest in April. Giorgio Squinzi, outgoing chairman of the employers’ lobby Confindustria, says growth will take hold “only if we clean up our own home.” Only then, he says, can reforms have an impact on the “real economy.” This story appears in the new issue of Bloomberg Markets. Subscribe now. Cover artwork: Ryan Melgar Politics and communication skills run in Renzi’s family. His father was a marketing consultant and elected councilor in the Tuscan town of Rignano sull’Arno. As a student representative, the future prime minister stood up to authority early on, refusing to stop distribution of a school newspaper that contained criticism of a mathematics teacher.

Later he canvassed for Prime Minister Romano Prodi of the center-left Democratic Party (PD). In 2009, after serving as president of Florence’s provincial council, he was elected mayor at 34, representing the PD. The following year he earned his stripes as Demolition Man. Presiding over three days of lectures and debates in a converted railway station, Renzi began what Filippo Taddei, the PD’s chief economist, calls the “takeover” of the party, demanding that its old-line bosses be dismissed. Renzi’s Florentine roots have been a spur and a drag in his political ascent. Detractors chide him for cocooning himself in a clique of Tuscan insiders known as the giglio magico (magic lily), named after the flower that has symbolized Florence since the Middle Ages. Even so, by December 2013, Renzi had become the PD’s leader. Within days, he and Taddei, a fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Bologna Center, were drafting an economic platform.

Taddei recalls that he and several colleagues “worked liked dogs over Christmas and New Year.” Their focus was on how to shift the burden of taxation away from employees and business and make the labor market more efficient. The platform was ready by the end of January 2014. The following month, Renzi became prime minister. “The demolition can now begin,” he proclaimed. Renzi was just 39. Together with his ministers—half of them women—he formed Italy’s youngest-ever government. He cut payroll taxes for lower-income workers. He pushed through Parliament the so-called Jobs Act that made it easier for companies to hire and fire while increasing employment protection for workers in line with their seniority. He shook up the electoral system in an effort to end Italy’s syndrome of revolving-door governments. His tax reforms included moving to abolish the tax on primary residences and reducing taxes on company profits. Source: {ITDGRATE <Index> <GO>} Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, 66, a former chief economist at the Organisation for European Co-operation and Development, calls Renzi “my young boss.” “I feel like an ex-demolished man,” Padoan quips.

“My generation is the one of the prime minister’s dad, and no doubt some of the ministers in the government are my daughters’ age, or even younger.” Renzi and Padoan often communicate by text message. Renzi’s messages ping in as early as 6 a.m. They’re not all business; Renzi, a supporter of the soccer club AFC Fiorentina, frequently goads Padoan, an A.S. Roma fan. Some of Renzi’s critics say Italy’s improved growth prospects are due to quantitative easing by the European Central Bank, not the current government in Rome. Sticking up for his boss, Padoan points to ECB President Mario Draghi: “Draghi says something I very much agree with. An expansionary monetary policy is a necessary but not sufficient condition.” For QE to work, countries must do their part, Padoan says. In Italy, that means implementing structural policies that make the “transmission” of stimulus funds “more efficient.” Padoan says Italy is starting to see the benefits. He says pro-growth policies such as reining in public spending and selling off state-owned assets will boost employment and shrink public debt.

Italy created 764,000 more permanent jobs in 2015 than it did the year before, according to INPS, the government welfare agency. Even so, the overall jobless rate rose to 11.7 percent in February, with youth unemployment at 39.1 percent in December. As for public debt, the EC says it expects Italy’s burden will fall to 132.4 percent of GDP this year, from 132.8 percent in 2015, the first decline after eight years of increases in the ratio. That depends on sustained GDP growth, however. “There’s always the risk that with inflation close to zero, it could go into negative territory,” Padoan admits. “But I’m convinced that inflation will rise, even if that happens gradually.” Source: {ITPIRLQS <Index> <GO>} Renzi’s push for growth also depends on getting some leeway from EC austerity rules designed to cut government spending and shrink budget deficits. Under his spending plans, Italy’s deficit will move dangerously close to the 3 percent of GDP set by the EC.

Since September, Renzi has been pressing for a loosening that amounts to 1 percent of GDP—not just to give himself time to implement reforms and promote growth, but also to help the government manage the cost of the refugee crisis. Brussels should grant Renzi flexibility because of Italy’s front-line “exposure” to that crisis as a Mediterranean state, says Claudio De Vincenti, an economist Renzi recruited as a cabinet undersecretary. The Renzi government is “the most reformist government since the war,” De Vincenti says. “Europe should be grateful, instead of suspicious, that Italy requests flexibility.” For some of Renzi’s critics, the changes are not deep enough. Andrea Montanino, who served as an executive director for Italy at the International Monetary Fund until last year, credits Renzi with raising confidence in Italy. That, he says, has helped to avoid “worse scenarios” than the debt crisis of 2011, when government bond yields soared to a record high, forcing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, already entangled in a sex scandal, to quit.

But Montanino wants Renzi to “make the country more competitive”—by creating a venture capital system that works, cutting the red tape involved in starting a business, and speeding up a sclerotic judicial system. Daniel Gros, director for economy and finance at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, says Renzi’s reforms have stopped short of the mark: A review that could have led to cuts in public spending “has more or less disappeared, and he’s done a U-turn on his initial plan to keep taxation on income instead of wealth by abolishing the tax on first homes.” Gros believes Italy’s biggest problem is low productivity, and he says the country could yet wreck the fragile euro zone if it defaults on its debts. “That’s not the direction things are heading now,” he says, “but why not?” On Jan. 22, Renzi invited Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, to a buffet lunch of pasta at Palazzo Chigi. They celebrated the company’s decision to pick Naples for its first iOS App Development Center in Europe. Three days earlier another CEO from the U.S., Chuck Robbins of Cisco Systems, announced strategic investments in Italy.

At the end of January, Renzi met with Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, which pledged to invest $600 million in the country. There’s a buzz that’s been lacking in Italy, says Renzi’s business-investment adviser, Marco Simoni, a professor on leave from the London School of Economics. “I see several multinational companies a week,” he says. “Service companies are coming to Italy, sovereign funds, private capital from real estate to pension funds. This is a country that has spent the last 15 years somehow paralyzed by the fear of globalization. Now the prime minister talks to businesses.” Foreign investors spent a record $19.7 billion last year buying companies based in Italy, building on six increases in a row since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s led some Italians to say foreigners are taking over. Simoni counters with the case of Baci chocolates, made by Perugina. His great-great uncle designed Baci’s graphics, including an iconic “love note.” Simoni points out that Nestlé, a Swiss company, bought Perugina. Nestlé appreciates “the Italian character of the chocolate, so it holds on to that,” Simoni says.

“The same goes for leather shoes, clothes, even engineers like those who work for GE. For us, the nationality of the investor doesn’t matter. What matters is having a serious industrial plan.” Renzi with Angelino Alfano, and Pier Carlo Padoan during a parliamentary session in Rome, Italy, on Feb. 24, 2014. Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg In the evenings, Renzi often retreats to his private apartment on the third floor of the palazzo, directly above his office, for a pizza dinner with members of the giglio magico. Its key members are, like Renzi, Tuscan-born: Luca Lotti, 33, a cabinet undersecretary, and Maria Elena Boschi, 35, minister for constitutional reforms. “Renzi doesn’t accept dinner invitations,” says Maria Teresa Meli, a political journalist for the Corriere della Sera newspaper who’s close to the premier. “He doesn’t like going to ‘parties that matter’ in Rome. He’ll spend his evenings with a couple of people from the magic lily in his flat, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, barefoot.

Then Renzi will say, ‘Let’s have a pizza,’ and often it’s Lotti himself who goes to get them. That’s the dinner—pizza and Coke.” The cliquishness rankles many inside and outside government: too small, too Tuscan. “Renzi’s real defect is that he doesn’t have a dream team,” says Enrico Mentana, news editor at the private LA7 TV channel and previously a news presenter on Berlusconi’s TG5 news. “He’s a soloist. He trusts only those he met in the past and not those who could give him another point of view. He’s like actors who come up to the capital from provincial theaters, and, after a time, find their repertoire is finished. He needs new people, a program for Phase 2.” Renzi is not about to cut off his old mates. “We’re still the boys up from the country” is how he puts it, according to Meli. Indeed, virtually every weekend, he shuttles to and from his family at Pontassieve, east of Florence. His wife, Agnese, with whom he has three children, teaches at a secondary school there.

With municipal elections expected in June presenting a test of Renzi’s popularity, he’s been getting out into the country more often—touring a nuclear physics laboratory in the Abruzzo region, east of the capital, for example. He’s said he’ll call a referendum, possibly in October, on his planned reform of the Senate. As part of his strategy to overhaul the ruling elites, he wants to dramatically reduce the powers of the upper house and free up the lawmaking process. It’s likely to be a contentious plebiscite, and Renzi has vowed to resign if he loses. His support seems to be holding up reasonably well in Italy’s fractured political arena. About a third of Italians back his party, according to polling in April. That was down from just over 40 percent two years ago, but still well ahead of the Five Star Movement led by comedian-blogger Beppe Grillo (about 25 percent) and Umberto Bossi’s Northern League (about 14 percent).

Five Star Lawmaker Carla Ruocco ridicules the idea that Renzi and his team mark a break from the past, and says the Renzi government is merely “a continuation of previous administrations, including Berlusconi’s.” Ruocco notes that cabinet members such as Interior Minister Angelino Alfano and Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin have served in earlier governments, and also points to Renzi’s support from Senator Denis Verdini, a former member of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. “Renzi governs with Alfano, with Verdini,” she says. “And he’s a Demolition Man?” Well, yes—in one sense, anyway. The PM is already planning his own demolition, at least as a politician. “I’ve decided on just two terms,” he says. If he serves out his first and wins a second, he’d leave office in 2023 as a relatively young man: “When I’m 48, I’ll be a pensioner!” This story has been updated to add the 10th paragraph on an agreement to form a multi-billion euro fund to help troubled banks.

Matteo Renzi nominated as Italian prime minister | Toronto Star World Matteo Renzi nominated as Italian prime minister Renzi, who leads the center-left Democratic Party, or PD, and is mayor of Florence, was nominated for the premiership by President Giorgio Napo Matteo Renzi, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party in Italy, could become Italy’s youngest-ever head of government at 39. (ALESSANDRO DI MEO / EPA) By Alvise ArmelliniDeutsche Presse-Agentur Mon., Feb. 17, 2014 ROME—Italy’s leader-in-waiting said Monday that he would need “a few days” to form a new Italian government, but he promised that as prime minister he would launch major reforms to revive the country’s moribund economy and modernize its inefficient political structures. Matteo Renzi, who leads the center-left Democratic Party, or PD, and is mayor of Florence, was nominated for the premiership by President Giorgio Napolitano. It was widely expected, following last week’s Renzi-orchestrated ouster of the outgoing premier, Enrico Letta .

“I will put in all the courage, effort, energy and enthusiasm of which I am capable,” Renzi said, before returning to Florence to attend his last city council meeting. MORE ON THESTAR.COM Italy gets unusual left-right coalition government with Enrico Letta as PM Renzi showed up for presidential talks looking serious, in a dark suit and tie. But the normally casual 39-year-old retained a degree of informality, driving around with no escort, and posing for pictures with fans in Rome’s train station. He reiterated that he wanted to lead a government until the end of the current parliamentary term, in 2018, and indicated that it would take “a few days” to form it. Renzi still needs to pick a team of ministers, return to Napolitano for a swearing-in ceremony, and secure a vote of confidence in both houses of parliament before he can officially take office. The process could be over by the end of the week. He accepted the premiership “with reserve”—a usual precaution that allows prospective leaders to sound out coalition partners before formally taking up office.

Once installed, Renzi pledged to deliver reforms in quick-fire succession: a parliamentary breakthrough on a new electoral law and other urgent institutional changes was scheduled for February, followed by a jobs package in March, bureaucratic and tax overhauls in April and May. There were expectations that Renzi could have been quicker in forming the government, but Italian media reported that he got bogged down in negotiations with coalition partners, such as the New Center Right Party of outgoing deputy premier Angelino Alfano. He remains on track to become Italy’s youngest-ever head of government—beating by a few weeks Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini—and the youngest in the European Union, a bloc whose rotating presidency will fall on Italy from July 1. Former British Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair—often evoked as a model for Renzi—gave him his endorsement. “The challenges are absolutely formidable but Matteo has the dynamism, creativity and toughness to succeed, with the combination of realism and idealism necessary for the times in which we live,” Blair told the Italian news agency Adnkronos.

“Europe needs Italy to take its rightful place in the leadership of Europe, and Europe’s leaders should get fully behind Matteo as he takes responsibility for the future of his country,” Blair added. Renzi also celebrated his first election victory since taking over the PD in December: His party’s candidate Francesco Pigliaru won Sunday’s regional elections in Sardinia, unseating conservative incumbent Ugo Cappellacci. The Sardinian vote, however, was marked by a very low turnout, down to 52.2 per cent compared to 67.5 per cent in 2009. It was seen as another sign of voters’ apathy towards politicians, which Renzi has pledged to counter. He faces a somewhat hostile public opinion, after breaking a promise to seek the premiership only after a general election win. An Ipsos poll broadcast Sunday on RAI state television indicated that 64 percent of voters were unhappy about the Renzi-Letta handover. Most Italians would have preferred to return to the polls to pick a new leader, Ipsos said. But Napolitano and Renzi ruled it out, because current electoral rules are almost certain to deliver a hung parliament, prolonging political instability.

The Ipsos survey showed that 52 per cent of Italians agreed that reforms under the outgoing government had stalled, suggesting that Renzi could regain popularity if he managed to unblock the political stalemate. “The entire country, even those who would never vote for him and perhaps do not appreciate his brusque manners, should hope that Renzi will make it,” the Corriere della Sera said in a front-page editorial. Several commentators suggested that he took a gamble in ousting party colleague Letta because he feared that perceived government inaction could have cost the PD a big defeat in May 25 European Parliament elections. In those polls, the PD faces a challenge from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo and from the opposition conservative Forza Italia party of former premier Silvio Berlusconi. The political turmoil has failed to unsettle markets. Yields on Italian 10-year bonds fell to 3.60 per cent, the lowest level since January 2006, while the spread—or yield differential—with German 10-year bonds shrank to 191 basis points.

Matteo Renzi Asked To Form New Italian Government | TIME.com Matteo Renzi Asked To Form New Italian Government 39-year-old would become Italy's youngest ever prime minister Send to Kindle Filippo Monteforte / AFP / Getty Images The head of the leftist Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi speaks to reporters at Quirinale Palace in Rome on Feb. 17, 2014. Follow @TIMEWorld Center-left leader Matteo Renzi was asked to form a new Italian government on Monday, paving the way for him to become the country’s youngest ever Prime Minister. President Giorgio Napolitano asked Renzi, 39, to form a new parliamentary coalition after the former premier Enrico Letta was pushed out in a Democratic Party (PD) coup Friday, USA Today reports. Renzi, the mayor of Florence, is a political neophyte on the national stage, and has promised bold economic reform for the economically struggling euro zone country. Italy saw just a 0.1% GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The Tuscan politician would be the third prime minister in a row nominated by Napolitano without having won an election, as Italy reels from political scandals including the one that embroiled former center-right President Silvio Berlusconi, who was convicted last year for tax fraud. Matteo Renzi Might Become Europe's Youngest Prime Minister - YouTube Matteo Renzi Might Become Europe's Youngest Prime Minister Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Feb 15, 2014 Florence mayor Matteo Renzi is poised to win the nomination to become Italy's youngest-ever prime minister after Enrico Letta was forced to resign by their centre-left Democratic Party. President Giorgio Napolitano held a day of formal consultations with political leaders on Saturday that proved more complicated than expected and analysts said Renzi could be asked to form a new government only on Monday, the AFP news agency reported.

"A happy ending is not guaranteed," said Angelino Alfano, leader of the New Centre-Right party, a minor partner in the current coalition whose votes could prove crucial to the formation of a Renzi government. "We can't finish in 48 hours," Alfano said after meeting with Napolitano, adding that he would refuse to ally with Renzi if the government proved "too leftist" and would then push for early elections. Nichi Vendola, leader of the opposition Left, Ecology and Liberty party, ruled out taking part in a Renzi coalition and said the new government would be tainted with the "original sin" of Renzi's underhand tactics. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, meanwhile, protested at what it called an undemocratic power grab by Renzi and boycotted the talks, saying Italians should be allowed to choose through elections. Popular newcomer Letta stepped down on Friday after the Democratic Party approved a motion calling for a new government proposed by the 39-year-old Renzi, elected to the party leadership in December. Renzi will be the European Union's youngest prime minister if he succeeds and has promised radical reforms to combat rampant unemployment, boost growth and slash the costs of Italy's weighty bureaucracy.

Opinion polls show Renzi is popular, mainly because as someone with no experience in national government or parliament he is seen as a welcome breath of fresh air in Italy's discredited political system. But surveys also indicate that most Italians would have preferred early elections and are opposed to what critics dismissed as a "palace coup" engineered by Renzi, following weeks of bitter feuding with Letta. "Renzi is a few strides from the finish line in his quest for the premier's chair, but he has not managed to unite the country behind him," said Stefano Folli, an analyst for the business daily Il Sole 24 Ore. "There is a slight scepticism in the air," he said, adding that Renzi's promise to govern until the next scheduled elections in 2018 was "not very credible" given the fragmentation of Italy's political scene. Investors are betting on a Renzi government pushing through key reforms, however, with stocks rising as Letta resigned and Moody's ratings agency improving its outlook for Italy from negative to stable.

Category Matteo Renzi, 39, is asked to form new Italian government - World - CBC News Matteo Renzi, 39, is asked to form new Italian government Centre-left mayor of Florence would become youngest-ever prime minister of Italy The Associated Press Posted: Feb 17, 2014 6:49 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 17, 2014 8:38 AM ET Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi attends a soccer match in Florence Feb. 15, 2014. Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano has asked him to form a new government, making him at 39 the youngest prime minister in the country's history. (Fabrizio Giovannozzi/Associated Press) Italy's president on Monday asked the brash young leader of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, to try to form a new government after Renzi managed to oust the previous premier in a power grab. Renzi, the 39-year-old mayor of Florence, met for more than an hour with President Giorgio Napolitano.

Afterward he said he would go to work immediately on forging a new coalition, with talks with potential partners formally beginning on Tuesday. Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta is set to resign, opening the way for Italy's third administration in a year. (Remo Casilli/Reuters) Renzi said he would need a "few days" before seeing whether he can succeed. But he told reporters by the end of the month he would propose new legislation to reform Italy's electoral law to make the country more governable. By March, he promised new measures to create jobs in a country where 40 per cent of young people are without work. April and May would bring other reforms, he vowed. "I will put all the courage, energy, and enthusiasm I can muster to deal with the most important emergency: that of the labor market," he said after the meeting. Renzi had orchestrated a mutiny within the Democratic Party to oust Enrico Letta as premier last week, accusing him of failing to jumpstart Italy's economy, even though Italy reported its first positive GDP in nearly three years that same week. 'Elections! Elections!' Renzi's first challenge is to form a coalition government that can win confidence votes in both houses of Parliament.

That's no easy task, given that his aggressive power-grab has alienated even some within his own Democratic Party. Outside the Quirinale palace on Monday, the small centre-right Italy Brothers party staged a protest shouting "Elections! Elections!" The party's leaders were incensed that Renzi was likely to become Italy's next premier without having ever run in a national election. He would be the third straight premier to get the job that way. More importantly, the New Center Right party of Angelino Alfano, who had served as Letta's deputy premier, is holding off on giving Renzi his support until he sees the premier designate's plan of action. Silvio Berlusconi's much larger Forza Italia party has said it would remain in opposition, while the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement has boycotted the transition process altogether.

With files from Reuters Matteo Renzi poised to be appointed Italy's youngest ever prime minister - Telegraph Italy Matteo Renzi poised to be appointed Italy's youngest ever prime minister 39-year-old mayor of Florence poised to be announced as Italy's prime minister following President Giorgio Napolitano's meetings with leaders across the political spectrum Mr Renzi, who has been nicknamed "Caesar" by more than one commentator for his desire to become leader without a political platform, has plenty of critics Photo: REUTERS By Josephine McKenna in Rome 6:32PM GMT 15 Feb 2014 Italian president poised to tap Renzi as country's youngest PM Italian president poised to tap Renzi as country's youngest PM * Seen nominating rising political star as early as Saturday * Napolitano holding consultations with parliamentary groups * Renzi, 39, pledging reforms to get Italy out of crisis By Paolo Biondi ROME, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Italy's president may ask young centre-left leader Matteo Renzi to become its youngest ever prime minister this weekend after a party coup that forced Enrico Letta to resign as premier of the euro zone state struggling to pull out of recession.

Letta bowed out on Friday after the leadership of his Democratic Party (PD) forced him to step aside and make way for Renzi, 39, who is promising bold economic reforms and a government than can survive until 2018. President Giorgio Napolitano expects to complete a round of consultations with parties in the evening and could summon Renzi, the PD secretary and current mayor of Florence, soon afterwards to form a government, sources in the party said. After receiving a mandate from the president, Renzi will have to strike an accord with the small New Centre Right party, whose support the PD needs to command a majority in the parliament of the euro zone's third-largest economy. The party, which split from scandal-plagued tycoon and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi last year, has ruled out liberal social policies that Renzi has advocated, including gay civil unions, and wants a clear centre-right stamp on the government. Renzi, whose PD is the largest party in parliament, would become the youngest leader in Italy's 163-year history as a united country, younger even - by two months - than Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was when he took over in 1922.

But before Renzi can stake his claim on history and attempt to install Italy's 65th government since World War Two, he must overcome institutional rituals and much wheeling-and-dealing, a process likely to take several days. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the pro-devolution Northern League, both opposition groups, have abandoned the talks, saying they are an empty ritual whose outcome is already written. But Berlusconi, the centre-right leader who was booted out of parliament last year after a conviction for tax fraud, was to accompany leaders of his Forza Italia party to meet the head of state in the afternoon. After striking a deal with parliamentary allies, Renzi must name the members of his cabinet, swear them in, and then seek confidence votes in both houses of parliament. He would become the third prime minister in a row nominated by Napolitano without having won an election. Letta was chosen to helm a right-left government after last year's deadlocked election, and Mario Monti took over for Berlusconi during a burgeoning euro zone debt crisis in 2011.

"If they think that this is democracy, we don't agree," said Vito Crimi, a leading member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in the Senate. MARKETS SEEM UNCONCERNED Financial markets have seemed indifferent to Italy's latest political ruction and investor confidence in the country's ability pay off its debt is much improved from 2011. On Friday, Moody's Investors Service lifted the country's sovereign rating outlook to stable from negative, after having slashed it by six notches to Baa2 from Aa2 during the debt crisis. But that will not make the challenges facing Italy's next government any less significant. Gross domestic product has shrivelled by about 7 percent in the last five years and industrial output has fallen by 25 percent. Italy's economy grew by a measly 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, data showed on Friday. It entered its worst post-war recession in mid-2011. Hundreds of thousands of companies have gone out of business and joblessness has not reached such a high level since the 1970s.

Italy's 2 trillion euros of public debt are equivalent to more than 130 percent of total economic output. Until two weeks ago, Renzi repeatedly said that he had no ambition to snatch power without first winning an election, a move most Italians do not agree with, opinion polls have said. Mounting pressure from unions and Italy's business lobby, which criticized the Letta government for not doing enough to help the country's struggling corporate landscape, prompted Renzi to change his mind, sources close to him have said. Read More A similar centre-left putsch in 1998 paved the way for a landslide centre-right election victory by Berlusconi less than three years later. "If the new prime minister wants to govern and change the country, he'll have to do it without fear of losing the next elections," former premier Monti said in an interview with Il Foglio newspaper on Saturday. Italian prime ministers are appointed by the president and do not have to win a direct election as premiers do in many other countries. But the succession of Italian prime ministers who have taken office without a mandate from voters has drawn criticism from opposition parties. Reblog

Question: Matteo Renzi became the youngest ever Prime Minister of which country in March last year?
Answer: ITALY